Mugabe: From Hero to Thug

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe used to wait until after he won an election to turn his thugs loose on political opponents. This time his party’s criminals have been torturing and killing their foes even though the balloting isn’t until this weekend. One difference is that when Mugabe won in the 1980s, the elections were generally fair contests. Now the economy is so bad, his regime’s corruption so widespread, foreign assistance so diminished, that he would be in trouble if he let the nation vote as it chooses. His solution? Terrorize the opponents.

Mugabe secured his place in history by fighting to free Zimbabwe from British colonial rule. The struggle made him a hero, a beacon for all African nations battling for independence. But he has fiercely held power for more than two decades, with his rule tarnishing his earlier accomplishments. He was a better freedom fighter than governor.

Mugabe’s rival in the presidential elections Saturday and Sunday is Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader. Violence against members of Tsvangirai’s political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has killed well over 100 people in the last two years by the party’s count. But the persecution doesn’t stop there. Last week the government charged Tsvangirai with treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe. The government claimed to have a videotape on which Tsvangirai spoke of having the president “eliminated,” but the charge has been discredited by all but Mugabe’s supporters.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is more than 100%, AIDS is a threat to the country’s stability and foreign investment has been crippled by the government’s seizure of white-owned farmlands. Mugabe has barred American and some other foreign observers from monitoring the election. His regime changed laws to disenfranchise many expected to back Tsvangirai. The repression and vote rigging may extend Mugabe’s grip on power, but it threatens to isolate the nation.

The United States last month imposed travel restrictions on Mugabe and his aides to protest the violent election campaign. The European Union did the same and took the extra step of freezing overseas assets of Mugabe and 29 top officials.

If Mugabe steals the election, the more than 50 British Commonwealth countries--Australia, Lesotho, Nigeria and South Africa among them--should suspend Zimbabwe’s membership. But damage will already have been done. The president’s thuggery could stoke violence among those who find it impossible to express their dissent peacefully at the voting booth. The ensuing mayhem would further disillusion a West that has only belatedly and reluctantly recognized the urgent need to help Africa battle AIDS and build its economies.